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DELIV'ERED IN. THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES,

OSr THE 17tti OF PEBBTTABY, 1860.

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PR-LNTED BY ELIHU S. RILEY.

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COEEESPONDENCB.

ANNAPOLIS,
House Del., Feb. 17th, 1860. •
My Dear Sir: ; - . ;, -
Your speech delivered in the House to-day, on the Free
Colored Population of Maryland, so deep iu historical research,
and replete in all that delineates the normal condition of that
inferior race, demands our attention as public property, and
we ask to be permitted to have a copy for publication. The
people liave for a long time felt the necessity of a document ot
the kind, and we hope you will not feel at liberty to decline.
With the highest regards,
Permit us to subscribe
Ourselves, truly yours,
a. W, GOLDSBOEOUGH,
JOHX T. FORD,
A. 3IEDDERS,
B. COMPTOIS^
JOHN R. BROWN,
C. J. DURANT,
S. P. DENNIS,
J.' H. GORDON,
AZA BEALL,
B. MILLS,
E. a. KILBOURN,
B. F. BURGESS,
B. PAESAN,
E. A. JONES,
F. 0. CROWLEY,
E. PLINY 'BRYAN,
, WILLIAM T. LAWSON.

ANNAPOLIS, Feb. 20, I860..
To the Hon. G. W. Goldsborough, John T. Ford, B. Comptox
A. Medders, John E. Brown, C. J. Dur.4nt and others.
Gentlemen: Your letter of 1*7 th inst., requesting that my
speech delivered in House of Delegates on the " Free Negro"
question might be published, has been received. I thank you,
gentlemen, for thfe compliment to myself, and for the deep in
terest yoii have manifested in the cause I advocated.
I agree with you, that the people of Maryland are not fully
alive to the great principles involved in this question — a ques
tion that involves the industrial and social interests of this
State, and one that presents issues of the gravest magnitude
to pur people. If you think the remarks I then made can he
of any service in reclaiming our beloved State from the thral
dom and blighting influence of free-negroism, you have my
consent to^use them at your pleasure.
With high regards,
I am your ob't serv't,
C. W. JACOBS. ,

SPEECH

In the House of Delegates, Feb. IT, 1860, the Bills of the
Committee on Colored Population being under consideration,
Mr. Burgess,, of Charles county, moved to substitute bills upon
the same subject, submitted l)y BIr. Dennis, of Somerset county.
After some debate on points of order, and upon tlie motion to
substitute, which brought up the merits of the bills of the
Committee then under consideration, Col. Jacobs^ who is
Chairman of tlie Committee, arose and said :
Mr. Speaker :
As in the history of individuals, events transpire that
modulate and control their future destiny in this world — so
it is in the history of governments. liistory teaches us that
governments liice human systems liave their regular periods
of growth, maturity, decline and extinction ; and while it is
little more than a disraal record of the crimes aud the ca
lamities ofthe human race, it also teaches us that the igno
rance, avarice, wickedness aud ambition of nuinkind may be
assigned as the general causes of the downlall of govern
ments. Living as we do it the middle of this nineteenth cen
tury with the lights of Christianity all around us, and the
]\:nowledge of past centuries, the rajfiid progress of the present
age in the arts, literature and sciences, all shedding a halo
of light upon our career as a people ; and blessed hy high
Heaven with one ofthe best forms of government ever insti
tuted for Tnan's civil, religious and political liberty — I say,
surrounded as we are by tliose great blessings, it would seem
that peace and plenty on the one hand, and contentment
and happiness on theother, ougiitto characteriseourpeople and
secure the perpetuity of our glorious institutions. Why are

we not this day the most happy and united people under the
sun, as well as the most prosperous and powerful amongst
the nations ofthe world? Could Almighty God have done
more for us than he has already done ? If that noble, pa
triotic band of departed sires were exhumed from their dusty
beds and liad their part in the great drama of human events
to play over again, could they do more for us, an ungrateful
posterity, than they have already done ? They gave their
blood and their treasure, their lives and their fortunes, that
we might be a free, united and happy people, that we might
defy the insults of our enemies and spread the broad regis of
civil, religious and political liberty, over the downtrodden
anrl oppressed of every nation and clime throughout the habi
table globe.
Our institutions are ha])ily adapted to the wants of the
people, and secure to them in an eminent degree those civil
aud political privileges, the want of wliich embroils the na
tions of monarchical Europe and slaughters thousands of their
miserable subjects periodically, in their fruitless efforts to at
tain. Scarcely a year transpires that we do not witness the
slaughter of va.^t numbers ofthe subjects of some of the great
five powera of Europe to the Jloloch of war. The people
there have learned there is a western world where ciA'il and
political liberty is fostered by the Goddess of Liberty, and
in their frantic efforts to attain like institutions, there zeal
is turned by the ruling powers there to cutting each others
throats, while the chains of civil and political slavery are
tightened upon them by each succeeding effort.
No country under the sun presents the rainbow of hope to
the oppressed millions of earth, like our own; and no gov
ernment is so much the object of hate and wicked de
sign by the effete dynasties of the old world as these L'nited
States. The struggle is going on between our respective sys
tems of government. Ours is based upon the principles of
the virtue and intelligence of the people ; theirs upon the
divine right of kings, and casts in society. Their system
obtained and had exclusive sway over the world, with trivial
exceptions, till ours sprang into being. Ours is in its infan
cy and continually exposed to internal feuds and external
enemies. Our institutions arraign the world ; and the des
potism of earth plots our destruction. The political pros
perity of our system depends upon the morals of thepeople^-
theirs upon the power to rule.
And yet, with all those blessings lavished upon us, and
secured to our posterity by constitutional compact, we have
become surfeited by the excess of civil and political liberty,
and thia day present to the world the lamentable aspect ofa
virtually disunited and hostile people. The pent up feelings

of deep-seated animosity and burning hate pervading the two
hostile sections of North andSouth only require some trifling
overt act to rend the Federal Government in tivain, and con
sign our chartered liberties to the i-^sues of fraternal war.
\^'hat has caused this state of thing.s — so much dreaded by
tho Fatlier of his country — and what, if anything can rcston'
harmony to a distracted country ? (jr have the gods decreed
our ruin throu.gh the incessant and relentless as.^anlts of the
North upon the peace and institutions ofthe South? Will
the North desist? I think not. Hiivo they not taught
their people from the political rostrum, from tlie sacred desk,
by their literature and the school teachers, in every social
and private circle, everywhere and at all time.^, for m.any yes'.i-A
past, that a crusade against the Scutli and against negro
slavery in the South is acceptable service to G"d ? T\'ith th;^
Cross in one hand and the Sword in the other, liave they not
murdered our citizens in cold blood and attempted wholesale
destruction in a neighboring State. AVho does not remem
ber the horrid murder of Gorsuch, one of our own citizens,
near Carlisle, Pennsylvania ! Has that blood ever been at-
toned for ? No! but a voice calls from the earth for -ven
geance ! The North cannot now stop or retrace ber hellish
designs even if they would. The rage and hate and fury in
fused iu the masses ofthe Northern people towards the South
cannot be curbed or controlled by suasive influences. They
are literally crazed and mad, their brain is on tire and their
hearts are blackened with the lust for southern blood. The
rubicon is passed and the South must fight or die. ,
Will the South submit ? A million of swords leaping
from their rusty scabbards -at the call of duty will tell you —
no. If the North will have it so, then, so it mu.st be. They
have assumed the aggressive— we the defensive. We have
not meddled with the rights and institutions of the North :
but they are sending swarms of mercenary emissaries all
through the South to steal our slaves and butcher our people.
They have violated the Constitution and laws of the Federal
Government ; while we have sacredly preserved in good faith
our constitutional obligations. Can a people so dissimilar in
moral allegiance to their government and religious regard for
the rights of their fellow man — ^long raaintain a common
union? The Declaration of Independence and the Constitu
tion are cherished relics of a by-gone age of patriotism. They,
with all their aacred reminiscences cannot stay this mad ca
reer of ruin and fanaticism that is sweeping over the Northern
States of this Union. Its progress is onward, onAvard, like
a mighty avalanche bearing down everything before it, and
the shouts and huzzas of applauding thousands at every new
conquest tells but too truly that abolitionism is the touchstone

6
of Northern sentiment. There is a North ; yes, and thank
God there is a South too ! We should be one in common
feeling, sentiment and interest ; but if we cannot preserve
the Union, let us preserve the South. Let the South have
but oue mind, one will, one faith, one God. I repeat, the
South must pre])are to fight or prepare to die.
If Seward and Sumner, Wilson and Chase, Giddings ancl
Greeley, Cheever, Beecher, Phillips, and the whole band of
leading Abolitionists at the North, were to attempt now to
hold their jjartizans in check, it would be a fruitless effort.
These men, in their treasonable and inflammatory appeals to
the Northern masses, on the subject of negro slavery at the
South, have raised a storm, a whirlwind of passion and ex
citeraent they can neither abate or control. Did not the Hon.
Daniel Webster attempt that thing himself ancl fail in his
effort? He, who had at times hy his eloquence countenaced
this abolition mania, saw its dangerous tendencies, and sought
Fanueill Hall, that his voice might be heard iu defence ofthe
constitutional rights of all sections. But the doors of that
sacred fane to liberty ancl the right of speech were closed
against him, and Daniel Webster from that hour took rapid
strides to his Marshfield grave. Let any of the leading Abo
litionists of the North try a similar experiment, if they would
prove their impotency for tlie task. Abolitionism pervades
all classes at the North — the 2«oms divine, as he desecrates the
holy teraple of the Lord, week after week, warms himself into
a seraphic glow of fervor when he speaks of negro slavery
and barbarian slaveholders at, the South ; the lawyer, mer
chant, tradesman, mechanic and citizen can appease con
science in no way so readily as to thank God they are
not so bad as those cruel slaveholders at the South. As the
vesper shades of twilight darken the windows of their dwell
ings and the fond mother gathers her group of tender ones
around, she teaches them to kneel with their backs towards
the South and raise their hands and voices in imprecations
upon negro slavery and the wicked slaveholder. Thus, gene
ration after generation, the Northern people are taught by
their parents, by their preachers and by their politicians to
hate negro slavery and the Southern slavehcdder. It is a part
of their nature, and a leading tenet in their religious creed.
C<an, I ask again, a common union be maintained with a
people so hostile to negro, slavery ? We had better part a
hundred times over than submit to such indignities. This
may all be sport to the North, but it is death lo the South.
Negro slavery at the South must be maintained at all hazards.
Our lives, peace and property, all hang upon the issue. The
North is quite united in this general feeling of hostility to
us, and the South must unite for purposes of defence. How

is this to be done? Free-negroism throughout this State
must be abolished. A universal pass system must be adopted.
Emancipation by last will and testament, or by any other
means, must be prohibited. Negro worsliip, ex'cept in the
assembly of the white congregation, aud at the slated place
and hours for the same, must not bo allowed. Free negroes
going out of the Slate must not be allowed to return ou pain
of being sold into slavery for life. No free negro to enter the
State, under a like penalty. Negroes must not be allowed to
attend jJolitical meetings, elections, fairs or other public gath-
orings. A general police system throughout the Stale, lo en
force and execute those and such other needful laws on the
subject, must be provided for. A close system of espionage
upon all stragglers and strangers of no known pursuit raust
be observed.
I shall now, at once, address myself to the con.sideration of
the leading points contained in this programme. I shall per
form this task under a due sense of the rights and the inter
ests of the citizen-population of this State, extending, at the
same time, to the free negroos themselves that real and sub
stantial humanity, which is essential to their well-being and
stay amongst us. In the treatment of this question I shall
totally disregard all of the modern sickly sentimentalism on
the subject of negro equality and negro emancipation, that
has so generally prevailed in the Northern portion of this
Union. My religion, my humanity, partakes of a higher
order of friendship for the negro than theirs. Their theory
looks to the entire- destruction of the negro race in this coun
try ; for, to emancipate them is equivalent to their extermi
nation. No man who will reflect for one moment, and whose
mind is not barred by prejudice or fanaticism, could fail to
see that negro emancipation at the South would either destroy
the white population there, or the wliites, in .self-defence,
would destroy them. Take either horn of the dilemma, and
the butchery and death of one or the other of the two races
would follow as sure as effect follows cause. We all know
that in such a contingency the negroes would sufl'er the hor
rors of that alternative. To this end, and to nothing more or
less, does Abolitionism tend. All the zeal, all the efforts, all
of the va.st amount of money yearly expended by Abolition
ists, to publish documents, call conventions and send agents
amongst us; have but one or tlie other of these two objects in
view. I do not say that all Abolitionists have in view such direful
calamities ; but such innocent ones, if there be anv, are inor-
ally and politically culpable for all the consequences that may
follow ; because they give their money and favor the wild
crew of frenzied vampires who do the dirty work and who

thirsts for human blood. If I had a voice that would reach
the ear of every abolitionist throughout the length and breadth
of the Northern and Western States of this Union, I would
tell them lu the name of God, in the name of humanity, in
the name of our holy religion and for the sake of the Union
of these States, to desist from their unholy and diabolical
treason. Many of them "know not what they do" will they
not stop, piause and reflect, between the porch and the altar,
betore the sun of our liberty- shall set in a sea of blood, and
the hope of the world is veiled in sackcloth and ashes !
Sir, Free-negroism is an excrescence, a blight, a mildew, a
fungus- — hanging on to and corrupting the social and moral
elements of our .people in Maryland. It has already to a
great extent contaminated the slave popidation and rendered
thera comparaiively worthless in many portions of our State.
Before our. free negroes had become so nuraerous as they now
are, our slaves were happy ancV contented. Their treatment
has always been and is this day, throughout this State, that
of kindness and indulgence. They have been born with our
ancestors and have descended from father to son for many
generations in the same family. Our boyhood days were
spent with them, in glee and mirth, and our riper years are
cemented by mutual attachment.s audfamilytiesof friend-ship,
Many of ns drew suck from the same breast that nourished our
slaves, and our "old aunty" and "old uncle" have become
heirlooms in the family circle. Their labor is always reason
able and never required in bad weather or at unreasonable
hours. In infancy and childhood they are clothed and fed
till ten or twelve years of age before they are expected lo la
bor at all ; when sick, our family physician attends them and
they are generally nursed by our wives and daughters. In
old age they are allowed to work or do nothing as they like,
ancl when death conies we bury them decently in the old grave
yard, where the family lies, and bedew their gra's-es with the
tear of heartfelt sorrow and affection.
idany of them have christian masters and mistresses who
teach them there is a God to serve, require them to go to
church, and read the Bible to them at home. Very many of
our slaves are members of the church and give evidence of
their sincerity by an upright and coiisi.stent deportment. Such
is a brief picture of slavery in ilaryland, as it existed before
the blighting eftects of free uegroism and abolitionism took
root in oiu- Slate.
How is it now ? Altered in many respects for the worse.
There were ^5,000 free negroes in this State at the cen.sus of
18.50.. There cannot be less than 90,000 at the present time,
and some compute their numbers at 100,000. Previous to the
revolutionary war therewas scarcely a free negro to be found

9
in the State ; the British laws not only encouraged the direct
African slave trade, but also discouraged negro emancipation.
When the vv-ar was over, many of our slaves were setfree, be
cause of their zeal and loyalty to the interests of their mas
ters and their families in the hour of peril. The master went
to the field to fight the battles of his country and the faithful
slave was- left behind lo cultivate the lauds and protect the
family from dringer. History records many instances of de
privation and deep solicitude exhibited by thosefaithful slaves
uuder such trying circumstances, for thesafety and protection
ofthe family left in their care. When the war was over, the
gratitude of the masters rewarded their slaves, in many in
stances, with freedom. Hence, at the first census in 1790,
we had 8,000 free negroes in the State. We then had lO.S,-
000, slaves — making in all an aggregate of 111,000 negro
population. At the same time there were 208,000, white
population, From that time free negroes rapidly increased till in 1800
we had 19,000 ; in 1810 we had 34,000 ; in 1830 we had 53,-
000 ; and at the last decade the vast number of 15,000.
Many causes have conspired to i)roduce these results. Our
revolutionary struggle was one^ to obtain those civil, political
and religious rights, which had been denied us by the haugh
ty tyranny of the' British crown to which we were then sub-
subjects. Those causes of grievance are graphically grouped
together in the Declaration of Indej^endence and ought ever
to be held in rememberance by our people and taught to our
youths in all of the free schools and literary institutions in
the State. We luerd denied the rigid of representation, hut
mere taxed loitJiout our consent. TJie rigid of trial hyJ2ir]/ivafi
denied its, and we luere transported to England to he tried, for
¦pretended offences. Large hodies of armed, troops ¦ were quar
tered upo7iv.s ,wliomurderedour peojjle lo'ifh impunity. -Swarms
¦of office holders were sent amongst zts to harass o-ur peo2il6 and
eat out their substance. The merciless Indians ivere set upon
ihe desti-ticiion of ottr settlements and d.omestic insurrection hy
ihe slaves luas excited hy o-ur Englisli masters — those, those are
only a few ofthe causes that involved us inthatbloody strug
gle for the rights of self-government. Eights precious to
freemen, but too many of our Northern people have forgotten
their cost and are ready to barter' them away for the privilege
of throwing up their caps and crying — long live the Queen
Victoria — long live monarchy ! If they do not admit this
truth in words, their whole course speaks it louder than
¦words ; and I solemnly cloubt that a single abolitionist at the
North woidd willingly take up arms in any war against mon
archical England, however just. The abolition of negro
slavery is an," essential prelude to the introduction of mon-

10
archy in this country. The requirements of society necessarily
make slaves of one class in the community whether white or
black ; monarchy would not have, negro slaves for subject.'?
where the enslavement of the white man can be secured— -i
ivould have all negroes to be .slaves in order that all ivhite.!^ may
he free. This is in accordance with the spirit and theory of
our government ; but the theory of abolitionists is, that white
labor is better than negro labor, that free labor (an absurdity)
is cheaper than slave labor , hence, negro slavery must first
be abolished, in order that white slavery to caidlal, under the
stern law of necessity, may take its place. Then, white
slavery io capital being fully inaugurated, the laboring class
of white population, being dependent upon and subject to the
caprices and demands of the wealthier class, woulcl form one
distinct inferior ca.st insociety ; and the wealthier class would
form another distinct superior cast. This superior cast would
soon grow up into an exclusive aristocracy based upon wealth;
and the inferior cast would degenerate into a peasantry of
servile laborers. A property qualification would soon follow
and the poor white man would be denied the right to vote or
have any say in tbe government. If he rebelled, large stand
ing armies would be in readiness to enforce submhssion. At
this stage, the crowned heads of Europe would repose more
quietly upon their pillows than they now do, and the despo
tism of earth would chant a jubilee requiem over the last re
mains of American liberty. These are the trophies contem
plated by the Exeter Hall Abolition Association in London,
and these the necessary sequence attending the triuraph of
Abolitionism in this country !
Are men so blind they cannot see? Are their ears so dead
they cannot hear? The times portend evil to the liberties of
the country, and all patriots should be on the alert. This is
no time for timid, nervous action ; an imploring voice seems
to come from those mute sentinels upon the walls in the Sen
ate chamber, more eloquent and stirring than anything I can
say. Shades of Carroll and Chase, Williams aud Smallwood,
nerve us to the discharge of duty in this trying crisis in
Maryland's history.
Are there any negro slaves in England, France, Austria or
Germany ? No. Are the laboring white population there
slaves or free ? They are the veriest slaves on earth — slaves
to wealth under the goading lash of imperious necessity. In
the South we have negro slaves, aud all Avhites stand upon
one level of social and political equality so long as they lead
ou honorable life. Poverty is no disgrace, wealth confers no
distinction in the South. Our motto is,
" Honor and fame from no condition rise —
Act well your part, there all the honor lies,"

11
Not so in the Abolition part of this Union. There, every
man and woman that labors is called o, servant, no matter how-
white they may be.
But I am running off from the .subject and must return.
The Declaration of Independence made no provision forthe
freedom of the slaves ; but the .Federal Constitution recog
nized them as an element in apportioning political powtr
amongst the several States ; it also regards them as property
for.the purposes of direct taxation, ancl provides for their re
turn to their owners in case of their running away into ano
ther State, and sanctions the African slave trade for twenty
years alter its adoption. The authors of Independence were
slaveholders, ancl all of the States at that time but one, were
slaveholding States ; the framers of the Constitution were
mostly slaveholders. Negroes then, throughout the whole
country, as they are now at the South, were regarded as pro
perty, and took nothing by, nor were they included in those
franchises stipulated in the civil compact. Thhs government
was made exclusively for the benefit of the white population;
their blood and valor secured our liberties, and they alone
have the sole right to its benefits. The free negro has no
chartered or political rights under the government, and there
fore loses nothing by any disposition the State may raake of
hira. Emancipation has been tolerated, but freedora has never
been conferred upon him by the State — the liberation by the
owner makes him a slave to the State.
The 21st Article of the Bill of Eights says : " Provided,
that nothing in this Article shall be so construed as to pre
vent the Legislature from passing all such laws for the gov
ernment, regulation and disposition of the free colored popu
lation of this State as they may deera necessary." There,
the whole principle I am contending for is fully recognised.
But it does not derive its vitality from the language of that.
proviso ; that proviso is only an expressed recognition of an
inherent right existing in the body-politic just as fully and
effectually without the proviso as with it. The Article refer
red to begins thus : " That no free man ought to be taken or
iraprisoned, or disseized of his freehold, libertie.s or privileges,
or outlawed, or exiled," &c. Then comes in the proviso as
stated. That proviso confers nothing, nor does it lake away any
thing. The power to act pertained to the sovereignty of the
State, and was independent of, and prior to the proviso. The
Article was speaking of "free men," and lest it might be
supposed to include free negroes, the proviso was put there to
show it had no reference to tbem at all, and then goes on to
say they shall be disposed of by the Legislature when deemed
advisable. I was a member of the Convention that framed

12
the present Constitution, and remember well the author and
circumstances of this proviso. The Hon. Wm. D. i\Ierrick
was the gentleman who projjosed it, ancl I remember some
gentlemen remarked that it would give the Legislature the
right IO sell the free negroes ; Col. Merrick replied, " the
rigid already e.Kisted, and he only wished to keep it in mind,
for the time would soon come when they woulcl have to be
sold into slavery." No oppiosition was made to the proviso
by any member, ancl it was attached to the Article by
common consent as expressive ofthe sense of that Convention
on the right of tlie State to enslave our free negroes.
The free negro is an alien lo the government of this State;
he is not a citizen^ never has been enfranchi-sed, cannot buy
v.duit he wants or sell what he has, without special Legisla
tive grant ; hehas no right to make a last will and testament,
])urcliase lands or carry arms ; nor can he exercise the right
to vote, or become evidence against any white person.. He
has been tolerated in the u.se of some of those privileges accord
ed to the citizen alone, but the grant of right has never been
extended to him. His position in this State is an abnormal
and anomalous one, well calculated to enfeeble our arms in
the time of peril, and wholly useless in the hour of need.
For years past, and every year more and more so, the Legis
latures of this State have been harrassed and annoyed by those
free negroes, aud -your statute laws are interlarded through
aud through by ¦ Acts of Assembly on their account. They
arc a nuisance and a pest in- this respect, and likely to become
more so in the future, if their present condition is continued.
Your county jails sire chiefly occupied by those free negroes,
and our court charges and county taxes are greatly augment
ed by meting out Justice to them. The negro convicts in the
Fcni tentiarv of this State are chiefly free — there are in all 134,
und 122 uf them are free ancl only 12 are .slaves.
I will not underttike to codify the laws of this State in re
ference to our free negroes — that duty has already been per
formed by abler hands, aud approved by this body ; but I will
briefly refer lo the provisions of a few laws on this subject,
wiLh. the view of sliowing that our State lias always leg'isla-
t'_'d upon those free negroes, as passive subjects under her ex-
rUi^Ivc control. The right to enslave them again or banish
thera from the State is not only expressed in tliose laws, but
the practice of doing so has always been and is now of com
mon ocfurreuce. True, the exercise of that right has here
tofore been made dependent upon the violation of some of our
penal laws ; but the general' application of fhe right to sub
serve the ends of humanity towards those free neo-roes them
selves, furnishes more potent reasons.
Blackstone says, that all laws are founded in reason, and

13
when the reason falls, the law itself must also fail. If we
apply this maxim to the case before us, we can easily see why
the general application ofthe right to enslave our free negroes
was not at first resorted to. The Legislature held the right
to enslave in abeyance, and supposed the enactment of penal
laws a sufficient reason to prevent crime, vagrancy, &c. The
hypothesis was founded in error, and has signally failed to
accoraplish the end proposed. It is useless — nay, T might
say it is mockery, to legislate further in that direction. You
first set the negro free, and then expect him to conform to
your laws, which is a restraint upon his freedom ! Sir, the
negro knows what slavery means, because it is natural to
him ; but when you set him free, and then pass laws to re
strain that freedom, it is all jargon and moonshine to him.
Freedom, in his conception, means cessation from labor and a
right to do as he pleases. The wrong consists in setting him
free at all, for which the negro is not to blame. To persevere
in this wrong makes it doubly so, and hence the necessity of
re-enslaving our free negroes.
I have a list of some of our laws on this subject coming
down from the last century to the last session of this body.
They cover the principle fully and little more need be said
on this point.
The civil disabilities of free negroes in Ma,ryland, clearly shoio-
• ing their freedom is ov,ly nominal and sheer mockery., and
that it in no sense confers any of the attributea or rights of
citizenship. -
Act 1831, chap. 323. No free negro is allowed to carry a
firelock or military weapon, or any powder or lead, wilhout
annual license from the court, to be revoked at pleasure ;
for 1st offence said free negro shall pay costs of prosecution
and forfeit all such arms to use of informer, and for 2nd of
fence in addition to above fines, shall be punished "with 39
stripes, or subject to penalties of felony.
Act 1831, chap. 323, sec\ Y", forbids anyfree negroes attend
ing any religious meeting, except they are conducted by a
white licensed or ordained preacher or by some duly au
thorised white person ; and it is the duty of all constables
or other civil officers to suppress all meetings of free negroes
held in violation of this law; and any officer failing to sup
press such meeting shall be subject to a fine of not less than
$5 nor more than $20.
Act 1805, chap. 80. No free negro shall sell any corn, wheat
or tobbacco, without a certificate under the hand and seal
of a justice of the peace ; which certificate shall be in force
for one year only'j and if any free negro shall violate this
law he is to pay $5, for every offence.

14
Act 1831, chap. 323. No person is allowed to purchase from
any free negro any bacon, corn, pork, beef, wheat,, tobacco,
rye or oats, unless said free negro produces a certificate
from a justice ofthe peace, or from three respectable white
persons in the neighborhood , ancl any person purchasing
from said free negroes without certificate, shall pay $5, for
every offence, or a sum equal to the value of the articles
purchased.
1831, chap. 323, makes it unlawful for any retailer ; ordina
ry-keeper or other person, to sell any ardent spirits, gun
powder,, shot or lead, to any free negro, under a like pen
alty asiibove stated.
1831, chap. 323. No license shall be granted to any free ne
gro lo sell any ardent spirits.
1831, chap. 323. Any free negro convicted of any crime not
punished by the laws of this State by hanging, such free
negro may in the discretion of the Court, he banished from
this State hy travsporfation to some foreign country.
1806, chap. 81. No free negro is allowed to keep a dog,
without a license from a justice ofthe peace, to be in force
for only one year.
By the Act of 1T94, chap. 47, they are called "lazy, indolent
and ivorfhless free negroes."
Sold. By act of 1831, chap. 323. Any free negro com
in g into this State, and staying over 10 days shall
pay §50 for every week thereafter he remains ; and
on refusal to pay the fine he is to be sold by the
Sheriff'.
Sold. Also by the same act of 1831, any free negro of
Md. , being out of this State over thirty days (with
out certificate,) he is liable to be sold in like manner
on return.
Sold. By act of 1839, chap. 38. All free negroes are
forbid coming into this State under penalty of §20,
for first offence, and §500 for second offence, to be
paid to the Colonization Society ; and on refusal or
inability to pay, the party to be sold a slave' on teji
days notice, the proceeds of sale to go to Colonization
Society after deducting legal charges.
Banish. Aot of 1825, chap. 161, banishes from the State
all idle and vagrant free negroes who cannot give
bail for their good behaviour ; and on refusal to
leave the State, or on return to the State after leav-
Sold. ing it — to be. soZcZ 0, s^cue by the Sheriff. ,
Banish. x\ct 1826, chap. 229, banishes all free negroes from
theStale, who have served out their time in the peni
tentiary ; and if any such discharged convict is

15
Sold. found in the State after 60 days, to be sold a .slave
for theterm of conviction. Act of 1842, chap. 281,
Sold. authorises the sale of anyfree negro belongino- to any-
secret society. a o
Sold. Act of 1849, sells a free -negro out of the Slate fyr
deeding in lottery tickets.
Sold. The last act of 1858, chap. , sells them into slavery
for the crime of larceny. I have known them sold
under this law for between twenty and thirty years
in the last two years in my Judicial District, aud
for life under the same law in other Districts. Many
have been sold under this law in the Stale, aud if
all the free negroes who have violated it in the last
two years coukl be reached, there would be few of
them left. It is as natural for a negro to steal as
for the sparks to fly upwards, but very many of them
escape detection.
I now leave the proofs contained in the Bill of Eights and
in the precedent legislation of this Slate, showing our right
to re-enslave our free negro population. I hope these proofs
are conclusive to the mind of this body. ^
Another reason that encouraged negro emancipation in thia
State, was the timidity and fear on the part of some that the
slaves would become so numerous as to induce servile insur
rection. This fear took its origin from the bloody massacre
ofthe whites by the slaves on the Island of Hayti or San Do
mingo, on the memorable night between the 21st and 22nd
of August, 1791. But had it been known that the British
emissaries, then as now, were the chief instigators to that
fearful destruction of life, their fears of .slave insurrection at
any future time might have been queited. A slave insurrec
tion in the Southern Stales of this Union is one of the most
unnatural and improbable events ever likely to occur. But
when British emissaries, in the person of abolitioiiists, get
amongst our slaves ancl vast free negro population, the worst
of consequences may follow. The sad event at Harper's Fer
ry on the 18th of October last, is proof in point of what I
say. Ossawatlomie Jobn lirown foolishly supposed the slaves
of Virginia were as anxious to be free as he was to do the
bidding of his British aristocratic masters. The swelleddiead
abolitionists of the North and whining parasites to royalty
there, thought our slaves were as ripe for rebellion as they
themselves were for murder and treason.
The facts prove that not one single slave joined them, and
those miserable wretches have since paid the penalty of their
crimes on the very soil they intended to crimson with the
gore of Virginia's daughters.
Those British abolitionists were more successful at San

16
Domingo. The Island of Hayti at that time raised abou*
three- fourths of all the indigo produced in the world ; and
England knew if she could liberate the slaves that they would,
as tree, cease to labor, and that would throw a monopoly of
the indigo culture into the hands of her East India posses
sions. She succeeded bv instis'ating the slaves to murder
their owners. Hayti, now a i'ree negro Island, raises only
about one-fourth, and the British East India possessions pro
duce three-fourths, ofthe indigo of the world.
The British government was the leading advocate for
slavery and the African slave trade in the early settlement of
this country find until we ourselves ceased to be political
slaves to her power. Tyranny to the whites and slavery to
the negros were both right in the eyes of the British Govern
ment so long as we were subjects and this vast countrj- of ours
acknowledged fealty to the British Crown. And if these
Uniteil Stales had continued to be British Colonies up to the
present time, does any one at all conversant with the history
of England, suppose that she would have changed in her love
for negro slavery ? Can any man for once think that the
slaves on the Island of Jamaica would have been set free
and become the degraded wretches they now are ? Or that
the quintuple treaty for the suppression of the slave trade
would ever have been proposed to our government and rejected
through the noble patriotism of Gen. Cass ? Or that the
more recent Tripartite treaty for the assuring anid quieting of
Spain in the possession of Cuba would ever have emanated
from a British minister ancl been rejected and refuted by that
statesman — Edward Everett ? Or that a large fleet of the
British Navy would ever have been posted on the coast of
Africa for years at the expense of mdlions of pounds sterling,
to suppress the slave trade — and incidentally assert the
right of searching our ships upon the high seas? Is it pos
sible for auy reasonable man, woman or child, capable of
analizing the simplest principle, or comprehending the
plains! truth — to admit, that the British Government under
who.-e fostering care the grandfather of the mulatto Fred.
Douglass was captured a slave in Africa and brought to this
colony — Avould now caress the grandson of that slave and
alhiw him the society ofthe nobility and to play the gallant
with tilled English ladies — if these States were yet in her
possession ?*
*rred. Douglass was born a slave in Talbot county,
Maryland, and ran away about 25 years ago. He is a mu
latto, and belonged to Capt. Aukl of that county, who is one
of the most indulgent masters. Capt Auld is still living this
day, and if the fugitive slave law were worth anything, the

17
How would Mrs. Stowe be tre-ated in England, if she had
written the book, she has on Uncle Tom, if we were vet suh-
jects of that Crown? Would the convention of En^dish
ladiesever have met at Strafford House to memorialize their
American sisters on the subject of slavery— if we all yet saun
as ournational pjean — "God save the Queen ?" no, no, no']
She would yet^remain the same England now in her views
of polity and self-aggrandizement that she was in the seven
teenth and eighteenth centuries. Ships, colonies and com
merce, point her aims and in.spire her ambition now just as
thoroughly as they did in the days of the elder Pitt. She is
just as unscrupulous now as she was then in the attaine-
ment of power ; and she would have the world at her feet
and us and our posterity in the place of our slaves.
But a change has come over the spirit of her dreams.
What she could not do by open conflict upon the battle field,
she now seeks to accomplish through the wily intrigues of
abolitionists in our own country, who have sold themselves,
like Arnold,, for the price of treason. This specious turn in
her policy had to carry some ofthe outward marks of humani
ty, some compliment, like that wdiich vice pays to virtue. She
at once liberated her slaves in the West Indies ancl iappro-
priated §100,000,000, as an indemnity to their owners. This
sum paid about one-third of their real value ; a sum she
could easily afford to throw away if the United States, or the
Southern States of this Union, could be induced to follow her
example and ruin themselves as effectually as- San Domingo
did. No motive of humanity or sympathy for the negro, en
tered into this act of hers. It was a bold stroke of govern
mental policy to destroy slavery in the Southern States of
this Union, knowing full well that the production of cotton,
rice, tobacco and sugar would fall with negro slavery, ancl
that would place the production of those crops in her own
hands. She also supposed that strife and civil discord would
be engendered between the slave-holding and non-slave-hold
ing States of this Union, which would eventually overturn our
government. In the former conclusion, she has been disap
pointed ; but in the latter, everything around us indicates a
speedy fruition of her warmest hopes. I here give the heavy
sacrifice she made in 1833 to effect our ruin, and which has
been a total loss to her up to the present time, but the fruit
is ripening every day and will soon fall into her hands if our
Northern people contimie this abolition excitement.

North would restore Fred. Douglass back to his rightful
owner ; will they do it ?
2

IS

A^o. of Slaves
set free in
1832.

Proportion of
iAe§100,000,000 each Island got.

Island of Jamaica.
Honduras 
Trinidad 
Tobago 
(rrenada 
Bahamas 
Virgin Islands 
British Guiana 
Barbadoes 
St. Vincent 
St. Lucia 
Dominica 
Montserrat 
Antigua 
St. Kitts 
Nevis 
Augiiilla 

311,692
.. 3,832
,. 21,302
.. 12,091
,. 23,471
,. 9,557
,. 5,399
.. 84,915
,. 82,807
. 22,997
. 13,348
. 14,384
. 6,355
. 29,537
. 20,660
. 8,722
. 2,451

§30,809.635 00
509,790 00
5,195,595 00
1,675,135 00
3,082,220 00
641,700 00
364,500 00
21,485,585 00
8,506,725 00
2,962,540 00
1,678,135 00
1,379,615 00
621,348 00
2,129,330 00
1,658,150 00
755,035 00

683,510*

This act of emancipation has destroyed all ofthe industrial
pursuits, banished morality, and handed the freed negroes
back into a hopeless state of barbarity and heathenism. The
enslavement of Chinese coolies aud Africans captured from
slavers, and from the colony of Sierra Leone, is now in full
operation on those Islands under the delusive name of ap~
jrrentice system, which is infinitely more cruel and oppressive
than any system of slavery known to us. In this apprentice
system, uo family tie? or kind feelings are known, as under
our system of domestic slavery ; ancl all the interest the mas
ter has, is to work the poor slave to death before his term of
servici' expires, so as lo save the expense of a return voyage.
But friulless and abortive as all those schemes have been
on he part of England to advance her own interests, they
hovte not entirely failed to delude many unthinking slave
holders in tlie South. The British people write most of our
liisinries, and furnish a large jiroportion of the current litera
ture of the day. They thereby mould and fassion public

* See Brifioh Colonial Lihrary of the West Indies, by Martin,
in 1844 ; London edition.

19
opinion amongst us to a great extent, and Britishize our
people without their being con.scious of it. The abolition
press at the ^orth is little more than a re-hash from the Bri-
tLsh abolition press; and there are uot wanting instances
where the press of the South have echoed sentiments from
the other side ofthe water totally at variance with the spirit
and genius of our institutions.
Tho.se causes and influences corabiued have given origin to
a certain class of persons at the North and in Southern States
known by the general cognomen of conservcUive. A term
whose apposite meaning is just nothing at cdl — convenient shift
in evading the question, whether a man is for his country or
again.st it-— a compromise between monarchy and free repub
lican institutions — an apology for both and a, committal to
neither — a go-between on all questions involving the stabili
ty of the institution of negro slavery in this country as op-
posedlo white slavery in England. This lerm conservative
personates, those at the North who say that negro slavery
is an evil, but who are unwilling to be called abolitionists ;
it also personates those at tbe South, who denounce as fire-
eaters every man who contends for his constitutional rights
to hold slaves. The Northern class, believing, that negro
slavery is an evil, send Northern missionaries amongst us,
publish Northern tracts for our benefit, get up Southern Aid
societies ancl do many wonderful things in the name of hu
manity — the design of all of which is to destroy this slavery
evil. They do much good a great way off in their own con
ceit, but forget the cesspools of vice and moral degradation
all around themselves. The murders, tbe thefts, the house-
brea.king, the arsons, the forgeries,- the seductions and pros
titutions, the infanticides, infidelity and atheism, abounding
at the North do not move them or excite their holy zeal.
But the well fed, ha]jpy and contented slave, whose master
has taught him morality and Christianity by precept "and ex
ample, draws heavily upon their selt-righteous ofterings. If
he be a negro slave, that is enough to secure all their sympa
thies, if he be a poor white free man, that is enough to se
cure their neglect and contempt. "Oh consistency thou art
a precious jewel ; more precious than any that lies hid in
the diamond mines of Golconda or is concealed in the green
waters of Omar."
The South sufters much from this officious intermedling of
Northern conservcdives. We are, by their acts, held up as a
people destitute of Bibles, destitute of preachers of the Gospel,
devoid of moral and christian virtues, and classified with
heathens and barbarians.
These con.servatiues imbibe British sentiments and act upon
the assumption that slavery is a moral evil. They start wrong

f '-

20
Had they the candor to admit that
negro slavery is a great blessing, that it has christainized
more heathens than all the missionary efforts iu the last cen
tury, then they %vould be prepared to admit that the Southern
people needed none of their works of supererogation. The
South can take care of the morals of their slaves ; let the North
control, if they can, the legion of ites ancl isms that infest
society there and drag their people down to hell.
This British and Northern influence has acted powerfully
upon Maryland. Many have liberated their slaves under a
doubt that slavery was wrong. Others have freed their si aves
by last .will and testament, under the belief it was right for
them to hold slaves, but uot right for others to hold them.
Others agaiu have freed their slaves to be colonized in Africa.
Some liave set their slaves free because they had no children
or near relatives lo leave them to. Many a person on a death
bed has done the act under the delusive idea that it would
propitiate their God. Some from one motive and some from
another have entailed upon this Stale the curse of free negro-
ism, till the evil has become insufferable and must be re
moved. How is this to be done? It wa.s thought the act of 1831,
chap. 281, would accomplish the desired end, aided as it was
by the act of 12lh March, 1832. At the time of the enact
ment of this law the State of Maryland contained 52,000
free negroes ; and their lazy habits and demoralizing influence
upon our industrial progress and the welfare of the State, in
every sense, excited the alarm of the Legislature. The Amer
ican Colonization Society was formed at Wa.shington in De
cember, 1816, under the sauleidea that our slaves, within the
Union, woulcl become too numerous, and that it wonld not be
prudent to free them to remain in this country — hence their
colonization in Africa was regarded as the best disposition to
be made of them. In imitation of the American Colonization
S'iciety, Maryland started her State society for the expressed
purpose and intent of "removing from tlie State of Jloryland
thepjeople of color now free, and such as shall hereafter become
so, to the colony of Liberia, in Africa, or such other place or
places, Old of the limits cf this State, as they may approve of,
and the pei'.idn or per. sons ¦>oto he remov fd , shall consent to go to,
according to the provisions of this Act."
This act covers all of the free negroes in the State "noio
free," in 1831 ; it, also, covers all in the State from that date
down to the present time in these words — "and such as shall
hereafter become so." It contemplated the removal of all
those free, or hereafter to become so — -which included our
present entire free negro population.
This act requires ' 'State Treasurer to pay to the hoard of

21
managers such sums as they may require, not exceeding $20 ,0(^0
for tlmt year, and §10,000 cmnually for tiventy years thereafter,
to he ajypUed hy Ihem in removing such, slaves as may hereafter
become free, ancl such people of color as are noiv free, to Liberia,
or such other places out qf the limits of the Stcde as theg may con-'
sent to go to."
This Act makes an appropriation ofthe sum of §200,000, iu
instalments of §10,000, a year, to run twenty years. This money
was given for the removal of slctves tobecomefree, a'nd such ne-
roes as ivere then free ; and it was given for no other nse or in
tent. That provision of the law also covers our entire free
negro population.
This act further provides — that '¦'every clerk of the county m
this Stale, whetiever a deed of manumission shall he left in his
office for record, and, every register of iv ills in every county in
this State, ivhenever a will, manumittiiig a .slave, shcdl he ad
mitted to probate, .shcdl send within five days tliere'inuf ter an ex
tract from such, deed or will, stating the names, number and
ages of the slaves so manumitted, to the board of managers of
Maryland, for removing the people of color of said Stcde ; and
said board shall notify the Amey-ican Colonizcdion Society, or
the Maryland Stcde Colonization Society thereof, and projwse to
rem.ove such slaves so manumiting , to Liberia."
Here, the act has exchosive reference to such negroes as have
been set free since 1831, and details the mode by which they
may be colonized in Africa. Its provisions, as last recited,
covers all negroes who have been set free since that time and
now remain in the State. But for fear the liberated slave
would be unwilling to be colonized in Africa; or unwilling to
leave the State at all, or that the society might not undertake
to secure his removal beyond the limits of this State — the act
goes on to provide :
"In case the said society shall refuse so to receive and re
move the persons so manumitted, or in case said persons shall
refuse so to be removed, then it shall be the duty of said board
of managers to remove the said persons to such other place,
beyond the limits of this State, as said board shall approve
of, and said persons shall be willing to go to ; and in case
said persons shall refuse to be reraoved to any place beyond
the limits of this State, and shall persist in remaining there
in, then it shall be the duty of said board to inform the sher
iff of the eounty wherein such persons may be, and it shall
be the duly of said sheriff forthwith lo arrest the said per
sous and transport them beyond tbe limits of this State."
This provision ofthe law is peremptory ujjon all slaves set
free since 1831, and allows them no possible j^retext whereby
fchey can claim a residence within the limits of this State. ^

22
But the law provided no compensation lo the sheriff for exe
cuting the forcible removal of such freed negroes, and hence,
tliey have beeu- allowed, in violation ofthe hxw, to remain by
mere sufferance of the State, and subject to such disposition
as we may make of them.
The right to manumit a slave is given by the act of 1796,
chap. 67, sec. 29, and requires the slave to "be of healthy
constitution and sound iu body and -mind, capable by labor
to provide sufficient food and raiment, with other necessaries
of life, aud not to exceed forty-five years of age." Eut the
act of 1831, says — "all slaves shall be capable of receiving
manumission, for the purpose of removal, with their consent,
of whatever age.
The act of 1796 defines and limits the right to manumit at
all ; bnt the act of 1831 breaks down all res-lrictions to eman
cipation for tJie pjurposes of removed^ beyond the limits of the
State ; it also closes the door against the right lo manumit
under the act of 1796, except for removed out of the Stale.
If that were not the legitimate and true construction ofthe
Act of 1831, its provisions for a loan of §200,000 to defray
the expenses of removing all negroes then free, ancl such as
should thereafter become free, could have no meaning or
force. For the language here used — " with their consent " —
when speaking of their removal, does not enure to the side
of freeclom, but annuls ail claim to- freedom within the limits
of the State. The prdicy of the State when the act of 1831
was passed, was evidently to get clear of her free negroes
then on hand, and to prevent any more emancipations, ex
cept it was accompanied by actual removal.
' To make this clear beyond a doubt, the act of 1831 pro
vi dies that — "¦ Isi case a,ay -slave so manundtted cannot he re~
¦moved ¦without,, .separatijig families, and said slave is ¦unwilling
on thoJ. account to he removed, and shcdl desire ta renounce the
freedom so intended by the said deed or will to he given,, then it
shall and may he competent to such slave to renownce, in open
court, the benefit of the said deed or ivill and to continue aslave."
This last clause in the act of 1831 sustains the eonstructioQ
I have given to the preceding pvovisiuns of the same act ; for
it says in substance that I shall not have the right absolutely
to emancipate my slave without the co-operation and assis
tance of the slave himself. I may propose freedom to the
negro, but cannot confer it, because the State steps in and
asks my negro if he will accept my offer of freedom and leave
the State. If the negro accepts on those terms, which the
State demands, theu, my negro is free the moment he is be
yond the limits of the State, and not before. If he refuse
to leave the State, he cannot accept the proffered freedom,
because the State makes his removal a sine qua, non condition

23
to his acceptance of freedom. This places the election of free
dom or slavery in the hands of the negro, after the master
has signified his wish by deed of emancipation, or by last
will and testament.
The effect of this right of election is to clothe the slave
with civil attributes entirely inconsistent with his condition
as a slave. For it will be remembered that the election be
tween freedom and slavery devolves on him while he is yet a,
slave. If he were already free and desired to become a slave
ever so much, he could not make a valid election of slavery
until the civil arm of the State interposed in his behalf. And
being a slave, the property of a citizen of this State, he is
thereby disqualified to make an election between slavery and
freedom ; for that would imply the possession of civil rights
he does not enjoy, and which the State cannot confer upon
him as a slave. His emancipation depends on condition of
subsequent choice, and I contend the slave has not the legal
capacity to make the necessary election. I know that the le
gal profession in this State have generally acquiesced in the
decisions of our Courts establishing the capacity of election
in slaves under such wills and deeds of manumission ; but the
great question as to whether slaves have, in law, any civil or
social rights, and any legal capacity to such a choice has not
been involved or considered in those decisions.
The decisions of the Court of Appeals of this State have
been, that where a deed of emancipation, or a last will and
testament, haS' proffered freedom to slaves on condition of
their going to Africa, or to any other place outside of the lim
its of this State, the act of emancipation has been declared
valid, and. the condition annexed has been declared void.
In the case of Spencer vs. Negro Dennis, 8 Gill's Eeports,
the Court said : "The power of testamentary manumission
only exists in Maryland in virtue of the 13th section of the
Act of 1796, ch. 67, and it can only be exercised ih pursu
ance of the authority thereby given. And that a testator is
empowered to limit the period at which manumission shall
commence." " But that freedom having once vested, nothing
short of legislative power, duly exercised, can produce such a
result — can convert a free negro into a slave." "That the
legislature of Maryland possess the power to prohibit testa
mentary manumission altogether, no lawyer would have the
hardihood to deny." For by the act of 1715, ch. 44, sec.
23d, it was enacted': That all negroes and other slaves im
ported into this province, and all children born of such slaves
shall be slaves during their natural lives. And the act of
1752, ch. 1, sec. 3d, says : That it shall not be lawful for any
person by verbal order, or last will and testament, or by any ,
other instrument of writing, to give or grant freedom to any

24
slaves ; and that all such bequest or grants of freedom shall
be void and of no effect.
Thus it is seen, that tinconditional prohibition to all eman
cipation was the policy of this State up to the passage of the
act of 1796. That act granted the right to emancipate, "not
lo foster emancipation, and thereby, as far as practicable, to
put an end to slavery, but it was to enlarge the privileges of
masters, aud to give them an authority to dispose of their
slaves in a wa}"- which, otherwise, tbey did not possess" —
xsubject to the limitations and restrictions imposed in the act
itself. The Court very properly says that " the legislature having
the authority to deprive slaveholders of all power to- make
testamentary bequests of their negroes, may grant to them
the right to do so, upon such terms as in its justice and wis
dom it may see fit to prescribe. And it is ec^ually within the
scope of the legislative power, whether such terms, conditions
or burdens are imposed upon the testator, the manumitted
slaves, or the persons- to whom they are bequeathed. In
either aspect, the burdens and conditions are alike obligatory."
I am not here to reverse the decisions of the Court of Ap
peals of this State, but I am here as a law maker, to correct
the laws, or abolish those obnoxious features in them, under
which the court is obliged to pass judgment. That court has
decided in this case : " That the conditions attached to a be
quest of freedom are conditicms subsequent, and, being sub
sequent, are wholly unauthorised hj act of Assembly, and,
therefore, void. But the court also said the legislature had
power to impose terms, conditions or burdens upon the right
to emancipate, aud that those conditions were ohligcdory upon
the testator and ujjon the manum.itted slaves. Now, the act
of 1831 did impose conditions upon emancipation, which were
removal beyound the limits of this State, ancl other acts of
subordination to State officers.
The hardship, in my humble judgment, consisted in decid
ing upon the conditions attached to emancipation, before the
status or condition of the negro was first determined. Had
thi.s latter course taken precedence, the status of the negro
"would have been adjudged that of slavery, till his consent
had been obtained and actual removal consummated ; ancl his-
civil incapacity to make a choice between freedom and slavery,
or to give a consent to leave the State, being clear, as a slave,
the bequest itself must have been pronounced void, and the
negro left in a state of slavery. In the case of Tongue vs.
Negroes Crissy, Ehoda and others, 7 Md. Eep., where negroes
under the age prescribed by act of 1796, were set free on con-;
dition of going to Liberia, and on refusal to go, are disposed
of as slaves under the will, the court held that " the restric-

25
tions in the act of 1796, ch. 67, as to the age at which slaves
may be manumitted, are repealed by the act of 1831, ch. 281,
and since the passage of the latter act, any slaveholder may
manumit his slaves of ivhatever age, and if the slave he unable
to maintain himself, and does not remove out ot the_ State\,
the manumiltor or his representatives are liable for his sup
port." Also in the case of Vansant vs. Eoberts, 3 :\Id. Eep., where
a testator manumitted by will certain ne<<ro slaves, from and
after the death of his wife, "provided said negroes are will
ing to leave the State and go to Liberia or some other colony
in Africa ;" " but if the said negroes, at the decease of my
wife, are .not willing to leave tbe State as aforesaid," then
they were to he hired out and their wages paid over to a cer
tain corporation, forever. The court held in this case, also,
" that the negroes were entitled to their freedom, though
they refused to leave the State, as provided for in the will."
I give these decisions ofthe Court of Appeals of this State,
to show that any manumission by deed, or by last will, no
matter how they are conditioned, liberiiles the slave fully and
effectually, so far as to estop the claimant in a suit to restore
him to slavery, ancl that all claimants to such slaves are
estopped, though the negro has performed no part ofthe con
ditions annexed.
But in the capacity of a Legislator, to make laws for the
people of this State, and not to construe the laws already
muder I am here lo apply great principles fo the affairs of
Slate, and travel where the file affords no jjrecedent — at
least in Maryland.
The decision in the Dred Scott case, and recent decisions
by the Court of Appeals in Va. touching the civil status of
the negro, have but lately brought up this great question for
investigation. In the elaborate opinion of the .Supreme
Court of the United Stales in the. Dred Scott case, there are
several striking passages bearing directly upon, the subject
now under discussion. In passing judgment upon the case
of Scott, that high tribunal has also adjudged the civil and
social status . of the free negro in Maryland and in every
other State of this Union. .That court says: — "The question
before us is, ¦ whether the class of persons described in the
plea in abatement (negroes) compose a portion of this pec/pjle,
and are constituted members of this sovereignty? we think they
are not, and that they are not included, and were not intended
to be included under the word "cil-izens" in the Constitution,
and can therefore .claim none of the rights and p-rivileges
which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens
of the United States, On the contrary, they were at that
time considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings.

26
who had been subjugated by the dorminant race, and, whether
einancipnted, or v'ot^ yet remained .sidtject to their authority,
and had no rights or privileges hid such as those ivho held the
pjoicer and the government mirjh.t choose to grant them.
"'They had ibr more than a century before the adoption
of the United States Consritution been regardecl as beings of
an inferior order, and altogether unfit lo associate with the
white race, either in social or political relations; and, so far
¦Inferior, that they had, no rights tvhich, the lulvite man was
hound to respect; and that the negro might justly and law
fully be reduced to slavery for his benefit, tie was bought
and sold, and treated as an ordinary article of merchantlise
and traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it.
"As relates to these States, it is too plain for argument,
that they (the negroe.s) have never been regarded as a part
of the people or citizens of the State, nor supposed to possess
any 'poliiical rights ivhich ihe dominant race might not ivithhold
ai their pleasure."
While speaking ofthe relation ofthe Federal Government
to slavery, the court goes on to say : — "The government of
the United States has no right to interfere for any other pur
pose bill that of protecting the rights of the owner, leaving
it altogether with the several States to deal with this race,
whether ema.ncipcded, or not, as each State may think justice,
humanity, and the inierests and safety of society requires.
The Siate evidently inieridtd to re.serve this poiver exclusive to
ihemselves." Here is the deliberate opinion of the highest judicial au
thority known to our government ; and none but traitors to
the country, whether North or South, will gainsay its vali
dity and binding authority in every locality of our wide
spread Union. It covers the whole grounds for which I am
contending, and disposes of the question as to our right, as
the ruling superior race, to dispose of our free negro popula
tion in any way we may think best for our interests, and the
safety of society. We can expel them from the State ; we
can enslave them all again, or we can fix their condition in
any other way we may think best The free negro loses
nothing by this exercise o? rigid on our part, because he has .
not now, and never did have any social or political rights to
lose. I now pass on to sorae decisions in our sister southern
States. It has been decided by the court of Appeals in Vir
ginia that the slave has no civil or social rights — that they
have no legal capacity to make, discharge, or assent to con
tracts ; that though a master enter into the forms of an
agreement with his slave lo manumit him, and the slave
proceeds fully to perform all required of him in the agree-

27
ment, he is without remedy in case the master refuse to com
ply with his part of the agreement. Auy lestanientary
effort of a master to clothe his .slave with the power of elec
tion bet\yeen slavery and freedom is an effort to accomplish
a legal impossibility. No man can cr(?ate a new species of
property unknown to the law. No man is allowed to intro
duce anomalies into the ranks under which the population of
the State is ranged and classified by its hnvs and constitution.
Such arc the ojiinions ofthe court of Appeals of Virginia in
the case of Bayly vs. Poindexter's executor.
Another case— that of the will of Ishs. H. H. Coalter,
widow of the late distinguished Judge of the Court of Ap
peals of Virginia — has alsQ been decided on the same grounds
of the incapacity of the negro to make an election". This
lady willed -nearly one hundred slaves to be free "on condition
of their consenting to goto Africa or some other free State
or country ; and required of her executor to raise out of her
other estate a sum sufficient for their removal."
Judges Allen, Lee and Daniel, decided in this ca.se as iu
that of Bayly vs. Poindexter, that Mrs. Coalter's will was no
more than a mere bequest of election lo the slaves between
freedom and slavery, which they had no civil right or legal
capacity to make, and the negroes were therefore declared to.
remain slaves.
Those opinions I endorse as the sound, logical solution, of
the status of the negro in this State. If they were practi
cally enforced in Maryland thousands of our free negroes
now roaming about in idleness and vice would be restored to
slavery again. The bill now under consideration proposed to
restore all such negroes manumitted since 1831 and now re
maining within this State, back to their rightful owners
Avithout the cost of litigation ancl vexatious delay.
Another provision of the Act of 1831 makes it-_— '"compe
tent for the orphans courts ofthe several counties and Balti
more city, to grant an annual permit to such slave so manu
mitted, to remain as free in said county, where the courts
are satisfied, by respectable testimony, that such slaves de
serve the same on account of extraordinary good conduct and
character." This language is extremely vague and indefinite, except
as to one point ;¦ and that is this : it clearly shows that the
negro has no right to remain in the State without such per
mit ; and the grant of the permit is evidence that he is not
free — the State holding his proffered freedom contingent
upon his leaving the Slate.
To make the intention of the law still more clear, it pro
vides that, "the board of managers shall have authority to
hire out such slaves so manumitted until their wages shall

28
produce a sufficient sum to remove them and provide the
necessary support at the place of such removal."
If this provision were literally carried out it would consti-
.tule the board of managers ofthe Colonization Society in this
State a mammoth slave-holding corporation. There must
be now from fifteen to twenty thousand such quasi free ne
groes in this Slate set free since the Act of 1831, whose labor
and wages are at the disposal and control of the Colonization
Society. Eut If they are subject to be hired out and their
wages withheld by the Colonization Society and the managers
of the bi'ard — is it not apparent to every mind that tbey are not
free? Andif notfree, to whom do they belong? tothe Coloniza
tion Society? certainly not : for it has failed to remove them,
and it has also failed to hire them out so as to raise a sum
sufficient for their removal. They still remain the jitoper-
ty of their original owners and their heirs at law, suspend
ed upon the action of this State.
The act of 1832, chapter 143, says — "The board of mana
gers .shall inform the Sheriff of any county of the refusal to
reraove of any person mentioned in the act of 1831, and shall
provide a sum sufficient to defray the removal of said person
beyond thedimils of the Stale. Every Sheriff then failing
lo coraply within oue month shall forfeit fifty dollars for
every person he shall neglect to remove."
This act of 1832 is supplemental, to the act of 1831, and
was intended to secure the removal of such manumitted
slaves by imposing fines and penalties upon the Sheriff of the
county. But it made no provision to pay the Sheriff for the
performance of this duty, and hence it became a dead letter
also. As before remarked, ihe removal of all negroes set free in
this Slate both before and after the passage of "the law of
1831, constituted the reason for the enactment of that law;
and wliere ihe removal has failed to take placd the reason for
the law has failed, which also works to the death of the law
itself. The law is now a dead letter upon our statute books.
When the first twenty years of this law expired in 1852, the
Legislature was so dissatisfied with its operations that they
could not be induced to extend its provisions over five years,
to 1857. And when at the expiration of tbose five years in
creased efforts were raade by the friends of the measure for
another extension, the Legislature refused to grant over
§5,000 for each of, five years more, and allowed another
§.j,000 to bejiaid per capita on actual removal alone.. I am
informed by the Cnmptroller ofthe Treasury that no money,
-has heen drawn for the payment of this conditional §5,000.
Wo can only infer that no removals have been made in the
last two years.

29
The truth is that the whole enterprise of colonizing our
free negToes in Liberia or elsewhere, was based upon a dihe
and fictitious supposition. Wc assuraed what was not true
in fact, and the whole raoney expended in carrying out the
enterprise has been wasted and sunk for no good, "in 1851,
after the scherae of colonization had been in progress for 19
years the society could only show an eraigration of 1,011
souls, and but very few of that number were actually free ne
groes. Slaves, to a larger number, had been set free and
forced to colonize, both from our own and other Southern
Stales. But with the exception of a few free negroes, who
were trapped. into going lo Africa at an early period in the
society's history, and before the ficts of their miserable con
dition there were fully known, thebulkof theemigrants have
been slaves set free on^ condition of their going lo Africa.
Many slaveholders in Maryland and in other Southern States
of kind and huuiain intentions, but grossly deceived, still per
sist in sending their slaves to Africa. We do not impugn
their motives, but must condemn tbeir practice. It is well
known, that our freed negroes are surrounded by a dense
population of hostile heathens who hold them in contempt,
and have litlle social or commercial intercourse with them.
They often make war upon the settlements ; and in 1857,
they murdered many of the colonists from this State, burnt
their little huts and drove them to seek shelter under the
protection of Liberia — thus breaking up the State of Mary
land in Africa, which now composes only a county in Liberia.
The colonists are destitute of horses, mules, work oxen, plows,
carts and wagons, and only subsist by hoe-culture of small
patches around the houses. What trade or commerce there
is from there at all, is mainly carried on by the natives in
palm oil, ivory, &c.* The united testimony of Captains of
ships visiting the colonies, goes to prove, that tbe most of
those freed negroes would gladly return home to their old
masters if they were allowed to do so, and take their posi
tion again as happy and contented slaves. As I ara opposed
to cruelty of every kind, I must here enter my earnest pro
test against this delusive humbug of forced colonization in
Africa. The whole scheme took its origin from this Britishizing
conserirdism so prevalent amongst us. Itis not an American
production ; it sprang not fro.m the soil, or the genius of our
institutions, but is foreign in all its spirit and tendencies. It
is the policy of Great Britain to spread her colonies through
out the world ; but it is our policy to unite sovereign States
under a Federal Union.
*See "African Colonization unveiled," by Edmond Euf
fin of Virginia.

30
The first effort to colonize Africa with free negroes took its
orio-in in this wise :— During our Ee_xolutionary^slruggle,
Dunmore, the Eoval Governor of Virginia, offered freedom to
all slaves who wouhl desert their masters and fly to his ships,
then anchoi-ed in the Chesapeake Bay. Considerable num
bers embraced the offer, and took refuge ou what they sup
posed to be the ark of safety, But Ihey were greatly de
ceived, just as our runaway slaves are now deceived by going
to Cauada. Dunmore soon had a large number of them ship
ped to the West Indies and sold, and pocketed the money.
Others of them had been sent to Nova Scotia, m Canada,
where thev remained till peace was declared,. They were
then carried to London, and after they had become much
trouble and annovance to that city, it was deterrained to col
onize thera at Sierra Leone in Africa. There were about 400
negro fellows, aud the brothels in London were stripped of
60lewd white woraen to mate with Ihein, and all sent as a
colony to Sierra Leone in Africa. Such is the history of that
colony, and such the first efforts at practical amalgamation,
which our abolitionists are so anxious to eftect in this coun
try.* There is no cause for alarm that the slave population of
this country will ever become so dense as to prove a source of
trouble to any part ofthe Union. All we ask ofthe North,
is to attend to their own business, and not disquiet themselves
for our safety over the imaginary evils of slavery. Our con
sciences are as quick tq real wrong as theirs ; our Bibles teach
us fhe road to Heaven lies through humility, faith, hope,^
charity, good-will to men and superlative love to God ; if
theirs teach otherwise they are spurious editions, and we want
none of their religion. The fate of this Union now hangs on
the course the jSforth may take. They have imperiled the
Union ; they have raised all the strife and excitement in the
land; and it remains to be seen whether there is enough
piitriotisni and Christianity at the North to avert the blow
thai threatens a dis.solulion of these Stales. The South can
not and will not interfere ; we can only look on and prepare
for the worst.
An essential part of this preparation, Mr. Speaker, consists
in disposing of our free negro population, as is indicated by
the provisions ofthe bill, now before the House. I have not
*See "Western Africa," by Eev. J. Leighton V/ilson, who
was eighteen years a missionary in Africa, and now one of
the secretaries ofthe Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions.
This work was published by Harper & Brothers, New
York, in 1856. For the facts here stated see pages 415, 416,
&c. • >

31
discussed the details contained in the several sections of the
bill, because, I take it, the greater will curry the lesser, and
if there should be any discrepancies in tho.se sections they can
be amended as they are called up for the final vote of the
House. The committee have endeavored to perfect the bill
and make it harmonize throughout. I trust their labors will
be appreciated by this House, and that litlle remains to be
clone but the official sanction of this grave and honorable
body. Having discharged my duty on this vital question to the
best of my ability ; and having in view tbe fear of God, the
wishes ofa confiding constituency, and the lasting welfare of
this State — there remains but little else for me to do but cast
my vote in favor ofthe passage of the bill.
Sir, I came here for this purpose ; other gentlemen came
here for this purpose ; numerous petitions irom our pei.iple
have been sent here asking the passage of this bill, ilary-
land demands it ; humanity calls for it ; probable contingen
cies that may arise within the present year absolutely call for
it. We are a border State, and the horrors and first shocks of
civil w^r, (which may Heaven forbid,) will break upon our
State, put I know there is a South — a brave chivalrous
South — that will come to our relief. Yes, from the Eio del
Norte to|the Delaware river there is one united southern broth
erhood- who will rush to our relief Little Delaware will be
there. Iioble little State ; she tendered her protection to Vir
ginia in jthat hour that tried men's souls ; let her be the
Northern star in the Southern galaxy, and the diamond in
the crowr of Southern union. The united South, with light
ning spekl, will pour het thousands of stalworth sons upon
our borders to take their stand upon. Mason's and Dixon's
line. I - '
If the North will haye it so, then, let it come ; we shall
never be in a better condition to meet the issue than now. I
bad rather offer myself as a sacrifice for my coim try's good,
than see the chains of British abolition tyranny fastened upon
my posterity and the people of this State to all future time.
But sir,\ it is thought there are some jsatriots still left in the
North who would also fight for their whole country— ancl I
believe it. There is an invincible tenth region still in the
North, who, like Elisha's hosts, would fill the mountains
ivith horses and chariots of fire, in our defence. But their
yes are not yet fully opened to the impending dangers hang-
ig over the country. Would that Elisha's God would open
eir eyes before it is too late. They buy and. get gain, they
irry and are given in marriage, they say to day and to-
rrow we will do thus aud so, and never read the hand
ting upon the wall, or discern the signs of the times, or

32
suppose the sands of this Union are cpite run out. I repeat,
the fate of this Union now hangs upon the action of the
JSorth — the safety ofthe South consists in the Union of the
South. < !iir free negro pupulation must be stowed below,
v,-hile we clear the decks for action.
Sir, I came here lo represent the white citizen population
of tills Stale, to protect their lives, their houses -from being
burnt, to detect and wrest the concealed dreg of poison that
claims a victim in every faraily of this State. I came here to
prevent servile insurrection, Avhich, when begun at the in
stance of Northern abolitionists, can only end in the butchery
and extermination ofthe free negroes of this State. I would
preserve their lives by placing them in the condition that
God and nature point out as the only safe one— into slaverry.
We have had enough of negro sympathy and mad devotion
to his exclusive good ; let us not forget we have wives, and
children, and an anxious and much aggrieved constituency,
vv-ho have claims upon us. Neglect to legislate now upon thia
subject and it will cost you, sir, or any other gentlemen of this
House, his life, to attempt legislation five years hence. Every
raan has now an enemy in his own house, and in ;his own
neighborhood, and abolitionism has schooled them to it.
Sir, the free negro population of this State, like/ the poi
sonous upas tree ofthe east, is spreading demorolization all
over our State. A diseased moral ancl religious' sentiment,
(now undergoing a revolution, thank God,) has planted this
tree in our Stale. Its twenty-two branches extent, to every
county, and its deadly vapors are inhaled in every neighbor
hood and at every hearthstone. It is this free negro element
that supplies the pabulum- on whit,-h abolition feet s and lives
in our midst.
Sir, we have pa.ssed resolutions that oiir Congressinen should
not vote for a Black Eepublican Speaker under- no circum
stances ; and we intend to resolve that Maryland shaVt stand
or iall with the South in the event of a dissolutiorj'. of th«
Union. I now call upon gentlemen to act and vote yilh me
ou a question of paramount importance to Maryland. '• I came
not here for the love of office, for I Avant no office for the sake.
of the office ; bnt I came here to discharge an imperious duty/
I owe to the people of this State, to my own conscience, ima
to the obligations of humanity. Let this bill pass, an/
^Maryland is safe ; let it fad, and her epitaph will be the i^
scription of her own folly, and her ruin the decree of hero-s
madness. Before the forum of conscience, before the people of tl
Slate, and in the presence of that God before whom I
stand and be judged, I now submit to this House the
arbitration and decision of this great question. Sir,
done.

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